Toy Collectors- Do you still play with your toys?

[SamuraiMegas]

Don't know if anyone here collects any toys/figures, but I asked this question on reddit a while ago and wondered what the consensus would be here. If you don't play with toys and still own them, at what age did you stop?

I probably stopped around 13-14, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't get really high and occasionally bust out Darth Maul to fight Red Skull or something on rare occasions.

[Ziggy]

Man, I wish I could still play with my toys! I don't remember how old I was when I stopped, but I remember the last time I attempted to play with my action figures. That part of my brain that allowed me to seriously "play" was just dead. How sad.

Recently I've been fixing up a room in my basement, and my X-Wing and TIE Fighter have been floating around. I don't have them boxed up because I want to suspend them on fishing line as if it's a still shot of them in flight. I have the TIE Fighter pilot action figure in the TIE Fighter, and the appropriate Luke Skywalker variant in the X-Wing. So I had to constantly keep moving them as I was cleaning up. And every time I did, I had the urge to make them fly as if the TIE Fighter was chasing the X-Wing. While I guess that was technically playing with them, it was more in an 'adult wanting to be a kid again' kind of way. I was only pretending to pretend, you know what I mean?

You gotta figure though... When George Lucas and ILM were making Star Wars, weren't they just playing with toys? In my adult years I was collecting some action figures because I wanted to try and make stop motion videos. Wouldn't that be playing with toys?

[Ack]

Ha, no. In fact, I haven't actively collected a figure in a long time, and beyond joke poses (like an entire Marvel lineup doing Thriller), I haven't really touched them in 15 years. I was actively considering selling them to a local comic shop before the pandemic and might still do it because I just don't have a reason to have them.

[SamuraiMegas]

Ha, no. In fact, I haven't actively collected a figure in a long time, and beyond joke poses (like an entire Marvel lineup doing Thriller), I haven't really touched them in 15 years. I was actively considering selling them to a local comic shop before the pandemic and might still do it because I just don't have a reason to have them.

If you have any gaming/anime ones you want to get rid of i might be interested.

[Anapan]

I do not. I have to admit, I had a favorite that is really hard to find. I wanted to hold it again. I finally had to have Ebay email me when one came up and I paid a stupidly large price for the nostalgia. I was worth it, but the brief plastic feel was all I wanted.
Here's a pic of what's sitting on top of my 3CRT rear projection TV:

Here's the holy grail: Mysterians: Scout from toy stores in canada in 1985:

I think I should play, or do *something* with them, but the last time I moved them significantly was for a picture I took commemorating a Racketboy milestone where I made a Fuchikoma hold a Racketboy flag.

That is a limited edition Michael Reeves Mochi Ding Ding with glasses! [Huge Flex]

[Nemoide]

NOPE! As an adult, toys are more decorative than plaything. A lot of my toys are purposely designed for collectors: Nendoroids, Tokidoki vinyl figures, tin robots, etc.

However I will sometimes take out my Transformers, Soul of Chogokin, and Bandai Deluxe Power Rangers toys just to transform them. I don't make them fight or anything, but it's satisfying to make them transform and hold them in my hand. Then I change them back and put them back in their box.

Space is a premium for me but something I've started doing is getting certain action figures in blister packs and hanging them on my wall. Currently they're just decoration, but my goal is to someday have enough space to open them up and display them out of the packaging! The only two series I'm doing this with are the new reissue figures of the 1980s Real Ghostbusters toys and Spawn figures from the 1990s; I only have a couple, but I'd like these wall-decorating collections to grow!

I don't remember when I stopped playing with my toys, but it was probably around 13. I know I opened up my Sonic Adventure action figures that would have come out when I was 14-15, but I don't think I actually played with them.

[fastbilly1]

Action figures, no.
Toy soldiers, yes.

I have passed on most of my action figures, but the few that I still have are in display cases. Cant get rid of my Dinoriders and select G1 Transformers and Starwars figures. In the last two years I started painting toy soldiers for my family, despite painting figures since 96. Now we have a couple hundred WW1 54mm plastic figures (aka armyman sized) - Germans and British/Scottish/American painted in a limited scheme and sealed in minwax. My plan initially was to play wargames with them in the yard, instead my family stages battles through the playroom...equally good.

[Raging Justice]

I have some that I keep in their original packaging and a few I put out as decoration. I think as video games became more and more of a part of my young life they become the "toys" that I play with. Figures are more of an aesthetic thing for me now. Like I have that Starfox Arwing toy from Starlink on display in a room of my house because I think it looks awesome. I will say though, that I do get nostalgic thinking about some of the toys I used to have. I wish I hadn't gotten rid of all my GI Transformers toys or Voltron toys when I was a kid.

Speaking of Transformers, there is one amazing new toy I actually made a thread about that I would happily play with even now as an adult because I think it's amazing. It's a bit expensive, but when you see what it can do you will see why. This is the kind of toy I would imagine rich kids getting from their parents and sophisticated enough that those parents would probably be impressed by it too. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0SEYM9jHVg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Tx06ShqdE

It moves, It BREATHES, it talks, it transforms, it even says the classic line, "Megatron must be stopped". It's basically the closest you're gonna get to a real life Optimus Prime. This thing is amazing and now we NEED a Megatron to go with it

[Raging Justice]

So since the last time I posed in this thread months ago, I've kind of starting up collecting Transformers again, and I have to say there is a lot of great stuff getting released lately! Also, regarding the OP's question, I actually am finding myself playing with a lot of these now. There is something immensely FUN about transforming the new, more modern transformers toys. The new toys have much more complex transformations than the 80s toys, and while you may need to closely follow instructions or watch a youtube video to figure out how to transform the new figures, it's really fun once you've got it down and the engineering that goes into this stuff is amazingly clever some times. I'd argue Transformers may be the best toys because it's a 3-in-1 thing. You get a robot, whatever it's transformation is, plus the transformation process itself is kind of like playing with a Rubik's cube or something. Course, they are great for just displaying too

A lot of the newer ones coming out these days seemed aimed at adults with their price points, details, and complex transformations, plus a lot of them are based off of the old 80s, Generation 1 cartoons that only people in a certain age group can appreciate. Here's some cool stuff I've picked up recently

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Voyager WFC-K9 Cyclonus - About as accurate a representation of him from the 86 movie and G1 cartoon as you'll ever find outside of unofficial third party stuff. The eyes light up when put in front of a light source too.



Transformers Generations Legacy Series Leader Galvatron - Robot mode is not quite as amazing looking as the Cyclonus figure, but it's pretty G1 cartoon/86 movie accurate and the cannon mode looks amazing, you can even angle it up, or roll it forward on wheels.



There are people on ebay selling upgrade kids that make him look even nicer, like by making his feet longer. I don't think the kits are official releases though, just fan made stuff



Here's two more awesome figures (or toys, whatever you want to call them) currently being shipped to me:

If any of you remember the very first episode of the G1 cartoon, before Bumblebee got his earth based transformation, he had this cool looking hover craft on cybertron





I'm also waiting on a repainted re-release of Optimus Prime from the Bumblebee live action movie



It would have blown my mind to have toys like this as an 80s kid, that said though, places like Walmart are re-issuing some of those old toys with more accurate colors, which I think is awesome





There's other 80s stuff I'd like to get too, but some things are out of my price range. I WISH I could afford the Carbotix Voltron set

[marurun]

Them toys look hella fun, TBH. If you go back to the original G1 toys some of them look nothing like the cartoon characters. The reason is, if you look at the earliest comics, they look stupid drawn on the page, so redesigning them was essential.